Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s spokesman and former National Security Council China director Dennis Wilder rejected a report alleging Chao held positions connected to Chinese government and United Front organizations, while critics said the questions concern disclosure and national security rather than ethnicity.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
A dispute over former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s reported affiliations with Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party-linked organizations intensified after two of her defenders characterized an investigation into those alleged relationships as racist, prompting critics to argue that the questions instead concern national security, transparency and disclosure.
Chao spokesman Patrick O’Connor and Dennis Wilder, a former National Security Council China director who also held senior positions at the CIA, challenged the findings of a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation that relied on Chinese government and state media records to report that Chao had received several appointments or titles associated with Chinese government entities and organizations linked to the CCP’s United Front system. Chao’s representatives deny that she ever held such positions.
Wilder publicly denounced the investigation after a previous report detailed its findings.
“Let’s call this what it is — another racist attack on one of America’s finest public servants. Absolutely shameful,” Wilder wrote in response.
Wilder served as the NSC director for China from 2004 to 2005 and later as senior director for East Asian affairs, following a career that included senior CIA positions focused on the region. He joined Georgetown University after leaving government service.
O’Connor also rejected the underlying allegations and said Chao had never served a foreign government.
“She has never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one. We are not aware she has met with representatives from UFWD entities,” O’Connor told the DCNF. “Such a suggestion disregards her nearly five decades of faithful service to the United States and is both unfounded and deeply insulting, hurtful and racist.”
Asked why scrutiny of the reported affiliations should be viewed as racist, O’Connor said Chao was being treated differently because of her Asian heritage.
“No one seems to care when most American business or political leaders hold meetings in China, so it’s suspicious when the Daily Caller makes insinuations about a former two-time cabinet secretary of Asian descent, especially based on photos, some of which are decades old,” O’Connor said. “The secretary is a proud American who has devoted most of her professional life to serving the American people. To question her patriotism is a double standard, at best — racist, at worst.”
Those denials accompanied the original DCNF investigation, which reported that Chinese government and state media records described Chao as having received at least four positions beginning in 2008, including three associated with organizations the report linked to the United Front Work Department. The records used varying terminology, describing Chao in some instances as having been “hired,” having “accepted an appointment letter” or “holding” a title. Chao’s spokesman has disputed the records’ characterization.
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, rejected Wilder’s racism accusation and instead called for greater disclosure concerning the funding behind Wilder’s academic work on U.S.-China relations.
“One of Secretary Chao’s quickest defenders was Dennis Wilder, who previously was the National Security Council’s China Director and held CIA roles overseeing the East Asia portfolio,” Lucci told the DCNF. “Yet Wilder himself owes the American public broad disclosures about who is funding his work, because his Georgetown US-China Dialogue program is funded by the CP Group, a Thai conglomerate whose executives are tied to Chinese intelligence through United Front organizations.”
Georgetown University announced a $10 million contribution in 2016 to establish its Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues. Georgetown described the donor as the Hong Kong-based Spring Breeze Foundation and said the foundation was supported by CP Group, the Thailand-based multinational conglomerate.
Lucci specifically cited CP Group Vice Chairman Yang Xiaoping, who was quoted in Georgetown’s announcement.
“In fact, CP Group’s Yang Xiaoping, who is quoted in the Georgetown funding announcement, is identified by the House CCP Select Committee as a united front operative,” Lucci told the DCNF.
Lucci also pointed to an opinion article Wilder published in China Daily in May discussing the importance of educational exchanges between the United States and China. The article identified Wilder as a senior fellow in Georgetown’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and noted his previous service as the NSC’s China director.
“Instead of mirroring CCP talking points by calling America’s best reporters racists, you should reflect on your own substantive issues such as publishing editorials in CCP propaganda outlets that build CCP narratives,” Lucci wrote in response to Wilder.
The exchanges followed Tuesday’s investigation into Chao, who served as Labor secretary under President George W. Bush and transportation secretary during President Donald Trump’s first administration. The U.S. Senate confirmed Chao as transportation secretary in January 2017 by a 93-6 vote.
The DCNF reported that Chao did not list the alleged Chinese appointments during her 2017 Senate confirmation process, despite being required to disclose positions she had held during the preceding 10 years. The dispute therefore centers in part on whether the titles described in Chinese records represented actual positions that should have been disclosed or honorary designations Chao did not knowingly hold.
According to the DCNF’s translations, one United Front-linked organization described Chao as an adviser and committee member between 2012 and 2017, while another listed Chao and her father, James S.C. Chao, first as honorary chairmen and later as advisers. The investigation also cited Chinese records identifying Elaine Chao as an international adviser to the Wuhan municipal government in 2009.
O’Connor has categorically denied that Chao held the reported foreign government positions. Her representatives have said official ceremonies, honorary recognitions and photographs with foreign officials should not be interpreted as evidence that she worked for or represented a foreign government. The DCNF, however, reported that contemporaneous Chinese records described the relationships in terms that went beyond photographs or ceremonial meetings.
The investigation also cited a May 2010 Chinese-language interview involving Chao and her father. According to the DCNF’s translation, James Chao stated while his daughter was beside him that both were advisers to the Wuhan municipal government. Chao’s spokesman has maintained that she was unaware of such a title and was not fluent in Chinese.
The competing accounts leave a fundamental disagreement over what the Chinese-language records signify. Chao’s representatives say she never held a foreign government position or acted on behalf of one and contend that suggestions otherwise unfairly question the patriotism of an Asian American who spent decades in U.S. public service. The DCNF and critics of Chao’s reported relationships argue that records describing formal appointments warrant scrutiny regardless of her ethnicity.
The latest dispute has consequently moved beyond the underlying Chinese records to questions about whether examining those records constitutes racial targeting and whether people defending Chao should disclose more about their own relationships with institutions involved in U.S.-China engagement.
For now, the central factual dispute remains unresolved between the two sides: Chinese government and state media documents, as translated and reported by the DCNF, describe Chao as receiving several appointments or titles, while Chao’s spokesman says she never held those positions or served any foreign government.
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